Soil, Water and Nutrient Management Initiative: A Global, Integrated Plan within the Ecoregional Framework

Revised proposal for a program covering management of soil, water and nutrients initiated by IBSRAM and involving at this stage, CIAT and the Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung (DSE). It was proposed to organize four consortia devoted respectively to management of acid soils; replenishing soil fertility; managing soil erosion, and optimizing soil and water use. The proposal was distributed to TAC, and to the CGIAR Chairman and Secretariat on behalf of the participants in a four day consultation held at the DSE center in Feldafing, Germany in June 1995.Agenda document at TAC 67 in July 1995

Environmental impact assessments of the Three Gorges Project in China: issues and interventions

The paper takes China's authoritative Environmental Impact Statement for the Yangzi (Yangtze) Three Gorges Project (TGP) in 1992 as a benchmark against which to evaluate emerging major environmental outcomes since the initial impoundment of the Three Gorges reservoir in 2003. The paper particularly examines five crucial environmental aspects and associated causal factors. The five domains include human resettlement and the carrying capacity of local environments (especially land), water quality, reservoir sedimentation and downstream riverbed erosion, soil erosion, and seismic activity and geological hazards. Lessons from the environmental impact assessments of the TGP are: (1) hydro project planning needs to take place at a broader scale, and a strategic environmental assessment at a broader scale is necessary in advance of individual environmental impact assessments; (2) national policy and planning adjustments need to react quickly to the impact changes of large projects; (3) long-term environmental monitoring systems and joint operations with other large projects in the upstream areas of a river basin should be established, and the cross-impacts of climate change on projects and possible impacts of projects on regional or local climate considered. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.Xibao Xu, Yan Tan, Guishan Yan